isr_polymersomes_uclfandomcom-20200214-history
Meeting No. 4
Session 4 - Controversies in Nanomedicine = Nanomedicine and Drug Delivery = What do the public think of this topic? * Prince Charles: fears the impact of nanomedicine. What are the main things researchers must consider? Risks to the Body/Environment: * Environment - non-toxic 50nm can become toxic as soon as it enters the body. * Charged residues - cause clotting. * Health risks; specifically Carbon-based nanoparticles. * Environmental effects: animals and vegetables, entering into the food-chain. * Breaking down/metabolising risks. * Risk of affecting epigenetics. Ethical Problems: * Animal testing - This is a very hot topic with argument on whether it is morally correct to use animals in trials when they could be harmed. There is a lot of stigma around this topic and so we will be looking at this in more depth in the next session. * Enhancement vs treatment. This could be misused to enhance body function. Distribution: These are a few questions that were raised during the session with regards to distribution of nanomedicine. * Who pays for research into nanomedicine? * How much of our resources should we spend on researching nanomedicine? * Who has first priority to access developments from research? * How should we prioritise which areas of nanomedicine to research? Links for further research on this topic: https://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/who_pays https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC325028/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695932/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2844666/ http://www.capurro.de/nanoethics.html https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025712507000703?via%3Dihub https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695932/ http://ethics.calpoly.edu/nanoethics/paper010807.html - environmental and health effect What we learnt... Abdullah During this meeting we discussed some of the controversies and ethics related to using nanomedicine. We also gained an insight into some of the issues scientific researchers face, such as addressing the perceptions of the general public in controversial areas of science like nanomedicine. We then looked at the uses and limitations of Molecular Dynamics. Adela This session had as the main topic the analysis of the main social, economical and ethical issues surrounding nanomedicine. We learned how important it is for us as scientists to look beyond the hard facts and the objectivity of science and to take into consideration the impact that the science we are creating has on the society and environment. Charlotte We picked up the main ethical issues associated with nanomedicine. This was interesting since I generally associated ethical questions with fields like genetic engineering and artificial intelligence, but we found many controversial aspects in nanomedicine. We talked about the advantages and limitations of molecular dynamics, and marked the other groups' infographics. Jasper As a group, we explored the ethics of nanomedicine and discussed the importance of considering scientific ideas in a societal context. We then looked at the field of Molecular Dynamics, and addressed how we can actually 'prove' scientific ideas to be 'correct'. Once we marked our peers infographics , we discussed the plan for the next section of the module. Miranda We discussed the issues and controversy surrounding nanomedicine using the knowledge we had gained from a previous session to find reliable sources of information. We found lots of general issues about the use of new medicines such as animal testing and cost, and we also discussed more specific issues relating to nanoparticles such as the effect of charged residues in the body. We also talked about the use of molecular dynamics in looking at biological systems and the limitations involved in this technique. Owen We discussed uncertainty of nano-medicine by looking at a range of sources and found that the general public did have many concerns with the technology. It was found that there were many concerns with the toxicity they many possess, environmental issues and animal testing that may be related to some of them. We then discussed the issues with molecular dynamics and how the human error and power of computers leads to uncertainty in results as many parameters may not be calculated and assumptions may also have to be used. Rachel In this session, we debated some of the controversies surrounding nanomedicine, namely the potential for toxicological and environmental risks, the interests of the groups that sponsor and fund the research, and the inevitability of uncertainty in scientific research. It was very interesting to peer-mark other groups' infographics, as it gave me an opportunity to compare and evaluate different techniques for presenting information. Victoria This session was based around the controversies around science and more specifically in nanomedicine. Some key points were about the unknown of the future in terms of what these tiny particles could do if they for example entered the food chain. Another factor to consider is animal testing which is an ongoing debate not just in nano medicine research. During this session we also marked other peoples infographics and it was very interesting to see what other groups had produced and how similar their work was to ours. Category:Meeting